Category Archives: Project-Updates

What’s this strange thing? This is the TacitTheremin, a device which helps blind people understand their surroundings using ultrasonic sound ranging. Designed to work in tandem with a cane, this device allows users to get a greater sense of what’s around them at ranges that exceed a cane and in any direction in which its pointed.

Inspired by the Tacit, an invention made by Grathio Labs, the TacitTheremin is a modification of that design concocted right here at the Omaha Maker Group. It mounts to the wrist, receives distance measurements from an ultrasonic sensor, and outputs sound to the user through a speaker (low tones for far distances, high tones for short distances). It ranges from 16 feet down to 3cm, 5 times per second.

This whole project started as an attempt to replicate a Tacit (because the idea is just so darn cool), and in the end it turned out to look quite different, with different coding as well. You can read about the epic journey in detail, and make your own for a friend (on an individual project basis).

But enough technical stuff. See it in action!

Currently, this prototype is being field tested by a local Omahan named Mike, who happens to be blind. Stay tuned for a followup video.

You can reach me with any comments, questions, or concerns here. Just be sure and put “TacitTheremin” in the subject. Alternatively, feel free to comment below!

So far it plays 1 string and can play simple songs. The idea is to make a slide guitar that can play complex music from a program, much like “player” pianos read from sheet music. This is a demo video showing the progress so far.

The acrylic heater is nearing completion (design shameless copied from a hack-a-day post).

I still need to make a few more tweaks to it before it’s ready for use. There’s a minute amount of water leaking around the barbs, but that’s easily fixed with some clamps. I’d also like to find something better than a gladware container for the reservoir. Then there’s the brightness… I don’t think the control I’m using was made to dim something with 0.1 ohms of resistance.

Halogen bulb on low

Yes, the overhead lights are on in this picture. Yes, the controls are set to their lowest possible setting. Yes, it’s that bright through the smoked acrylic. I actually grabbed a welding helmet a few seconds after this shot.

I’ll post more details and possibly a tutorial video when I get this thing ready.

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